Organizing the U.S. Government to Counter Islamist Extremism

For all the progress the United States has made in fighting terrorist networks, there has been a general failure to confront the terrorism problem’s ideological center of gravity. A new Hudson Institute study examines how the U.S. government could mount an effort to address this failure by working to change the ideological climate in the Muslim world. The study identifies which types of governmental and nongovernmental organizations should be created to conduct this effort.

Produced by Douglas J. Feith and Abram N. Shulsky of Hudson Institute and William A. Galston of Brookings, the study argues that the various Islamist terrorist groups around the world are linked by ideology—common beliefs about their duties as Muslims that spawn and intensify hostility to the United States and to the West in general.

Hudson Institute hosted a panel discussion in which two distinguished commentators discussed the report with its authors.

James Glassman, Commentator

Executive Director of the George W. Bush Institute and former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs

Will Marshall, Commentator

Founder and President of the Progressive Policy Institute

Douglas J. Feith, Panelist

Hudson Senior Fellow, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and author